WARNING: THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE SERIOUS ISSUES AND INCOMPLETE CONTENT. PLEASE READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS PRIOR TO PURCHASE.

Recent Reviews:

Mixed
(11)
- 45% of the 11 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“As a crowd funded and crowd sourced game we have felt that an open form of development is critical to making this game the best it can be. Early Access on Steam will greatly increase our access to community members who can help make the game better and is a natural iteration of the early access we have been providing our backers for the last year.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We hope to finish the story by the end of the summer, all content near the end of 2017 and launch shortly after that but we will not be launching until the product is ready.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version is a monthly updated snapshot of the game in active development. That means there will be constant monthly updates including large balance changes.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Shroud of the Avatar is currently in Early Access. This game still needs a LOT of work, and will be under construction for some time. This means it won't feel like a finished game to you because some of the features are half-finished or missing entirely, the design hasn't been balanced, performance hasn't been optimized, lots of bugs to fix, etc. Joining now means participating in the development, not just playing the game”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Prices may increase after Early Access.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We are in a constant dialog with our community and we allocate 30% of each monthly release to player requested changes. We have also periodically crowd sourced content including art, music, sound effects, code, etc. Contributors have had the choice to be paid in real dollars or double the amount in add on store credit. Please note that for now we are not accepting crowd sourced contributions but plan to do so again in the future. Additionally as a sandbox the players have many opportunities to create in game events. To date players have created plays, sermons, quests, mazes, PVP tournaments, birthday parties, dance parties, hot tub parties, murder trials, town hall meetings, etc. with the in game tools.”

About This Game

WARNING: THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME VIA CROWD FUNDING, BUG TESTING, AND FEEDBACK. PLEASE ONLY PURCHASE IF YOU ARE ALSO PREPARED TO HANDLE SERIOUS ISSUES AND INCOMPLETE CONTENT. PLEASE READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS PRIOR TO PURCHASE, MANY OF WHICH WARN YOU OF THE CURRENT UNFINISHED STATE OF THE GAME.

SUMMARY:

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a new type of third person fantasy RPG that combines a single player narrative with a sandbox MMO. It is being created by a team that includes: Richard "Lord British" Garriott the creator of the Ultima series, Starr Long the original Director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman the author of the beloved Dragonlance Novels and Dungeons & Dragons modules.

Episodic Content: Shroud of the Avatar will consist of five episodes that will tell a series of virtue based stories created by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman. All supported by a series of prequel novels starting with Blade of the Avatar. Forsaken Virtues is the first episode (this is what you are purchasing access to).

Single Player Offline Mode: Players will adventure through over 40 hours of story in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them.

Selective Multiplayer Modes: If you want to go through the story online you can play with everyone in a single world with three different online modes (Single Player, Friends, and Open). All items available in these multiplayer modes are also available in single player offline via purchase in in-game gold or other resources.

Classless Character System: Vast customization options with hundreds of skills and spells in over 20 different skill trees.

Skillful Combat: A new way to prepare and fight in an RPG by building custom decks of skills and dynamically activating them in combat.

PVP: Consensual with Open PVP flags, zones, and Guild Warfare.

Player Housing: Non instanced, finite, and embedded in the world with multiple group living options.

Player Driven Economy: Deep crafting system where the best items are made by players and player items are the main source of loot found in the game.

Pay Once to Play: No subscription fees. Each episode is a one time fee and everything in the game can be purchased with in game gold that can be earned (except for some exclusive backer rewards).

Social: Full Guild System, Highly Active Community and Player Owned Towns.

Crowd Sourced & Funded: Support the project by purchasing items in the add-on store or participate in telethon stretch goal exclusive item events! These online enabled add-ons and pledge items are also available to all players in offline mode.

Open Development: Players help shape the game by giving feedback on monthly early access releases, videos, weekly updates, blog postings, forums, chat, etc.

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is currently in Early Access, so there are a lot of features and content still to be built. Even the current content needs polish and balance. On the last Thursday of every month we release a major update to the game that includes new features, new content, and bug fixes. We update the schedule for these on a quarterly basis with a final update for each release the day before it goes live.

Current Version

Housing: Purchase property and a wide variety of buildings to place there. These can be customized with hundreds of items (paintings, crafting stations, chairs, tables, food, plants, fountains, statues, lights, etc.). Players can also set permissions that allow them to share this property with other players. Higher level pledges begin the game with property and house deeds. (Find out more at www.shroudoftheavatar.com)

Crafting: Gather and refine resources to craft a wide variety of objects including weapons, armor, potions, food, and furniture.

Player Trading: Trade with each other for items or gold.

PVP (Duels and Zones): Fight other players in Open PVP zones of the map or 1 on 1 duels in any location.

Dual Scale Map: Explore the world by walking across a map (aka The Overworld) like old school RPGs with random and roving encounters mixed among named points of interest.

Combat and Magic Skills: We have over 100 skills in a wide variety of combat and magic schools including Blades, Fire, Water, Life, Polearms, Shields, etc.

Multiple Online Modes: Play how you want in one of two modes: Single Player Online or Open Multiplayer Online.

AI Behaviors: Archers will try to maintain distance, warriors will try to surround you, Liches will summon skeletal allies, and villagers will turn on lights when night falls.

Advancement: As you gain experience fighting and questing you gain levels which give you skill points that you can use with a trainer to purchase new skills or to raise your attributes.

Hint System: Each time you attempt something for the first time a hint will appear with basic instructions (this can be disabled in options)

Fully Interactive World: Every attempt is made to make the world respond to you. All the lights you see can be turned on and off, doors can be opened/closed/locked/unlocked, objects can be taken from shelves/tables/etc.

Dynamic Lighting: Time of day changes as you play along with all light sources casting light in a realistic fashion.

Performance: Continued optimizations as well as sophisticated fallback routines will greatly improve performance.

More Magic & Combat Skills: More skills will be coming including the Chaos Magic School.

Localization: Support for multiple languages.

More Creatures: More creatures along with multiple variations and new behaviors.

We estimate reaching a Beta version with all features and content sometime in late 2017. All features and plans listed here are subject to change. We may modify, add or remove features as we see fit during the development process.